


take my hands, they'll understand

by psycheDahlia



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Scary Games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-22 22:11:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17068088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psycheDahlia/pseuds/psycheDahlia
Summary: "Arin knows right away he has to be careful not to say anything about what Dan does next. Not while they’re recording, at least, less out of fear that it’ll end up in the final episode and more because he knows he’ll get asked whether the moment should be left in or cut when Matt’s editing the episode, and frankly Arin’s never been quite sure how to answer that question."Dan's not great with horror games. It's probably a good thing they don't do facecam.





	take my hands, they'll understand

**Author's Note:**

> title comes from "body" by mother mother which is a far less sweet song than this title implies!
> 
> i posted a rough version of this to the polygrumps discord and decided to polish it up and post it!

“I hate this so much already,” Dan remarks, watching as Arin runs down a seemingly endless hallway. “I know something’s gonna fucking pop out.”  
  
“Nothing’s going to pop out,” Arin mutters.

No sooner does he say it than a bloody hand suddenly shoots out from the wall, blocking the hallway and filling the screen. At the exact same time, Arin abruptly feels a hand on his bicep. Those two things combined, along with the stock scream effect from the game and Dan’s resulting scream in his ear, is more than enough to make Arin jump clear out of his skin.

He blindly grasps at the hand on his arm, far too startled to process whose it is or what is happening, unable to assess whether it’s an actual threat or if he’s just panicked. He only makes the connection when he glances to his right and sees that Dan is now much closer to him on the couch, having been propelled there by his own fear. Long fingers curl into the fabric of Arin’s t-shirt and Dan scoots even closer, desperate for comfort. He meets Arin’s eyes and half-smiles.

“Jesus,” Arin breathes a sigh of relief.

“What?” Dan asks, gaze snapping back to the screen, expecting another scare but only finding an empty hallway and the anxious breathing of the game’s teenage protagonist. “What happened?”

“Nothing,” Arin explains. “You just scared me. Creepy hand on the screen and then your hand on my arm, the brain makes unfortunate connections.”

“Oh, shit,” Dan’s eyes go wide. “I didn’t even think about that. I was just scared and needed…” Dan trails off. “Sorry.”

“It’s cool,” Arin replies, squeezing Dan’s hand to reassure him and then letting go to resume playing the game. Dan doesn’t move, staying close and maintaining his grip on Arin’s arm.

Arin starts running down the hallway again. The lights flicker and suddenly the ornate oriental rug right in front of the protagonist disappears with a discordant piano chord, turning to a flat black space.

Dan shrieks and...

Arin knows right away he has to be careful not to say anything about what Dan does next. Not while they’re recording, at least, and that’s less out of fear that it’ll end up in the final episode and more because he knows someone will ask him about it. Not the fans, he’s used to that, there’s no getting around that, but he’ll get asked whether the moment should be left in or cut when Matt’s editing the episode, and frankly Arin’s never been quite sure how to answer that question the numerous times it’s come up over the years in regards to things exactly like this. It usually leaves him feeling some sort of way that someone even felt the need _to_ ask him about it, so Arin usually leaves those moments in mostly for the sake of being able to feign innocence to what the proposed edit could possibly be referring to. Sometimes that’s enough to get them to brush off the suggested edit altogether, other times it forces them to clumsily explain and then allows Arin to accuse them of reading into things. There have been a couple times where he ultimately did have to agree with the proposal to cut something, though, usually something he felt was too personal between him and Dan to be shared with the world and dissected.

If Dan ever noticed those occasional little edits, he’s never said as much.

But right now, Dan’s hiding from the game in Arin’s shoulder, face buried against Arin’s collarbone. Arin lets out a carefully worded, “Hey, no, you gotta watch,” and shrugs his shoulder a tiny bit, gently jostling Dan into moving.

“Mmm,” Dan protests. He turns his head so that his cheek is instead resting on Arin’s shoulder, his eyes begrudgingly pointed towards the screen. “Okay. I’m watching.”

Arin hums his approval and resumes playing, dashing down the endless hallway with renewed determination. There’s several long, tense, almost silent moments just watching the hallway, with its looped decorations, rush by, listening to the player character’s breathing getting heavier as she runs, her stamina running low. Arin keeps feeling Dan shift against his shoulder, sees him fiddling with his hair out of his peripheral. It takes him a moment to glance down and see what Dan’s trying to do.

“Oh my god, come on,” Arin rolls his eyes. Dan’s adjusted his hair so it’s fallen in front of his face, almost entirely obscuring his vision. “You can’t even see.”

Resting the controller on his knee, Arin reaches over and gently tucks Dan’s hair behind his ear for him. “Fine,” Dan mutters, tilting his head slightly to help Arin do it. “But if something super scary happens, I’m out of here.”

“It probably will,” Arin admits. “That _is_ kind of been how this game is going so far.”

“Shit, you’re right,” Dan says flatly. "Horror are scary!"

“But you gotta stay here, man,” Arin finishes. “You can’t...don’t leave me alone with this game.”

“Oh man,” Dan groans. “Now I feel bad. Alright, dude, you got me, I’ll try.”  
  
Arin tries to step on the blackened space where the rug used to be, only to find that the rug’s been replaced with a bottomless chasm. The protagonist lets out a shrill, horrified scream as she falls to her death. A sickening sound of crushing bones plays, followed by the death screen, a previously unseen rapid-fire series of deliberately low-quality clips of disembodied rolling eyeballs played over a soundtrack of wailing and screeching sounds.

By the time the game is back to the main menu, Dan has an arm around Arin’s waist and has fully buried his face in Arin’s chest, the rest of him halfway in Arin’s lap. “Alright,” Arin says, setting the controller down and gently wrapping an arm around Dan’s trembling shoulders. “It’s over. We’re back on the main screen.”  
  
“Jesus,” Dan cries, staring up at Arin, his cheeks pink. “I fucking hate horror games.”   
  
“I know,” Arin replies, squeezing him tight. “You’re fun to play them with, though.”

**Author's Note:**

> please comment if you read this!!! <3 <3 <3


End file.
